To examine the purposes and program of French medicosocial observers during the period of the constitutional monarchy (I8I5-I848). Answers will be sought to two interrelated questions; l) how do we know the worker and appreciate his social and medical condition and 2) why should we seek such knowledge. Study will place great emphasis upon the value system which inspired and guided early medicosocial investigation and constituted an essential element in the formation of the social sciences, and thus will add to our knowledge of the values and practices which guided the first perceptions of new social phenomena.